üChina: On June 22, the Ministry of Education convened a meeting on digital and intelligent empowerment for lifelong education and released ten model cases. Minister Huai Jinpeng emphasized that the 15th Five-Year Plan period is critical for upgrading the lifelong education system, calling for building a ubiquitous system and implementing the national education digitalization strategy.
üCôte d'Ivoire:Côte d'Ivoire has completed the second capacity-buildingsession organized by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA). Ministry of Education staff received systematic training in advanced data analysis skills, aiming to shift the country's education policymaking from traditional statistical models to specialized analytical tools.
üUnited States:On June 8, the RAND Corporation released the 2026 State of the American Teacher Survey, focusing on teacher well-being, pay, and intentions to leave, showing that teachers' physical and mental health remains at a low level, with average salaries lagging behind other professions by approximately $29,500, and 18 percent of teachers planning to leave their jobs this school year.
üInternational Organization: World Bank releases From Prospective to Prepared Teacher: A Global Study of Initial Teacher Education, analyzing the current state of global primary pre-service teacher education and proposing five guiding principles, including enhancing attractiveness and selectivity, optimizing curriculum and teacher educators, strengthening field placements, promoting institutional alignment, and improving quality assurance.
China: The Ministry of Education Convened a Meeting to Advance Digital-intelligent Empowerment for Lifelong Education and Learning Society Development
On June 22, the Ministry of Educationconvened a meeting in Chengdu, Sichuan, to advance digital and intelligent empowerment for the lifelong education system and the development of a learning society. The Minister Huai Jinpeng emphasized that improving the lifelong education system and building a learning society are key tasksfor achieving Chinese modernization. He stressed the need to deeply understand the significance of developing lifelong learning in the new era, seize the historic opportunities offered by digitalization and intelligence for lifelong education, and build a networked, digital, personalized, and lifelong education system.
Relevant departments from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions participated in the meeting. And ten model cases of “Digital Empowerment for the Lifelong Education System and Learning Society Construction” were released, along with updates on new resources and upgraded functions of the National Smart Education Platform’s Lifelong Learning Center.
Source: The Ministry of Education of China
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4UiK9axKfAJBGpzH4B7org
Compiler:HE Yale, UNESCO-TEC
Côte d'Ivoire: Côte d'Ivoire Completes Second Session of "Education and Skills Data Challenge", Advancing Data-Driven Education Decision-Making
Under the framework of ADEA's "Education and Skills Data Challenge" initiative, Côte d'Ivoire has successfully completed its second capacity-buildingtraining session. Supported by Côte d'Ivoire's Ministry of National Education and hosted by France's National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics (ENSEA), the session was held from June 1 to 5, 2026, in Yamoussoukro. The goal is to transform education policymaking in the country from reliance on conventional statistical methods to the use of specialized analytical tools.
Launched in 2024, the "Education and Skills Data Challenge" initiative aims to empower up to 30 African countries over a five-year period, facilitating a transition to data-driven governance in education. To address gaps in education data application across Africa, this training session targeted ministry staff and focused on reproducible data analysis workflows and automated processing methods. The comprehensive training in advanced data analytics skills is designed to help the Ministry of Education establish a robust system for generating and utilizing high-quality educational evidence.
Source:Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA)
https://www.adeanet.org/en/news/cote-ivoire-completes-second-capacity-strengthening-session-under-adea-education-skills-data
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ZabmAsxLIOr_7sngZRR2rA
Compilers:SUNZhihua, RIICE, Shanghai Normal University;XIA Yuxuan, UNESCO-TEC
United States:RAND Corporation Releases 2026 State of the American Teacher Survey, Focusing on Teacher Well-Being, Pay, and Intentions to Leave
On June 8, the RAND Corporation, a U.S. think tank, released the 2026 State of the American Teacher Survey: Teacher Well-Being, Pay, and Intentions to Leave. Based on longitudinal data from 2021 to 2026, the report presents disaggregated analyses by gender, years of experience, race, school characteristics, and state policy contexts, systematically portraying the current working conditions of U.S. K-12 public school teachers.
The report finds that since 2021, U.S. K-12 teachers have consistently and significantly outperformed workers in other professions on indicators such as frequent job-related stress, depressive symptoms, and burnout. Among them, 59 percent of female teachers reported frequent job-related stress, 15 percentage points higher than their male counterparts, with the primary sources of stress being student discipline, inadequate pay, and excessive overtime hours.
In terms of intentions to leave, 18 percent of teachers planned to leave their jobs during the 2025-2026 school year, with slightly higher rates among non-white and female teachers. 44percent of teachers planned to stay in teaching until they become eligible for retirement benefits. Among early-career teachers (0-5 years of experience), 27 percent said they would "continue teaching until finding a more desirable job", a share significantly higher than among veteran teachers.
In terms of compensation, the average base salary for teachers in 2026 was approximately $75,599, compared with an average of slightly more than $105,000 for similar working adultsand a gap of roughly $29,500. This gap has widened from the $18,000 difference recorded in 2024. In addition, female teachers earned $7,444 less in base salary than their male colleagues.
Source:RAND Corporation
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4404-2.html
Compilers:FANG Fan, RIICE, Shanghai Normal University;FENGJiamiao, UNESCO-TEC
International Organization: World Bank Releases Global Study on Initial Teacher Education and Proposes Five Guiding Principles to Strengthen Teacher Quality Worldwide
The World Bank has released From Prospective to Prepared Teacher: A Global Study of Initial Teacher Educationon its official website, systematically examining the state of primary school teacher preparation across approximately 200 countries and territories worldwide. The report finds that institution-based training remains the dominant model, with about half of countries requiring a bachelor' s degree for primary school teachers. However, entry requirements remain low in low-income countries, where 15 percent require only a lower secondary school certificate.
On this basis, the report proposes five core guiding principles for building an effective teacher preparation system: First, enhance the attractiveness of the teaching profession through compensation, career development, and diversified recruitment mechanisms. Second, provide high-quality curricula covering subject-matter knowledge, pedagogy, and professional identity, strengthen the training of teacher educators, and apply artificial intelligence with caution. Third, build progressive, mentored, high-quality field placements. Fourth, promote collaboration among governments, teacher training institutions, and schools to bridge pre-service preparation with in-service professional development. Fifth, strengthen multi-level quality assurance systems at the institutional, programmatic, curricular, and individual levels. The report also warns of the proliferation of low-quality private training providers in Latin America and South Asia, and recommends that future efforts strengthen the science of learning in teacher education, practice-oriented program evaluations, and local research capacity building.
Source: World Bank
Compilers:SHEN Qiuyu, RIICE, Shanghai Normal University; FENG Jiamiao, UNESCO-TEC
